As Detroit's crumbling auto industry asks Congress for a bailout, Chrysler is in the awkward position of paying about $30 million in retention bonuses to keep top executives while the company cuts thousands of jobs.

The employment carnage in the ever-shrinking U.S. auto industry continued Thursday as Chrysler LLC announced it would get rid of 1,825 factory jobs and General Motors Corp. trimmed some benefits and said it would make further white-collar cuts.